By Shazia Qureshi
ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS -- August 23, 2007 -- About 36% of patients taking antimuscarinic agents to treat overactive bladder have comorbid hypertension, according to results from a large retrospective database analysis presented here at the 37th Annual Meeting of the International Continence Society (ICS).
The findings were based on an analysis of 78,291 patients (mean age 57 years) whose overactive bladder condition was treated with at least one prescription fill for the antimuscarinic drugs tolterodine or oxybutynin. A total of 75.5% of the patients were women.
Principal investigator Karl-Erik Andersson, MD, PhD, Professor, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States, said that the total prevalence of cardiovascular disease among these patients was "high" at 47.2%.
The study, presented on August 22, was a retrospective database analysis of administrative claims made between January 1, 2000 and March 31, 2005, from a large managed care organisation.
Once patients were identified as taking antimuscarinic agents to treat overactive bladder syndrome, medical claims were then used to identify pre-existing cardiovascular conditions in these patients.
Hypertension was found to be the most prevalent cardiovascular comorbidity at 36.2%.
Acute coronary syndrome was present in 1.5% of patients, 1.0% had myocardial infarction, and 9.7% were found to have other ischaemic heart diseases.
In terms of cardiovascular conditions related to QT interval prolongation, ventricular arrhythmia was identified in 3.2% of patients and 9.9% of patients had been diagnosed with other conduction disorders.
A total of 6.4% of patients had cerebrovascular disease (including stroke).
Congestive heart failure was identified in 4.3% of patients.
Dr. Andersson noted that while antimuscarinic agents are the main drug therapies used in the treatment of overactive bladder, it is known that these agents may increase heart rate by depressing cardiac parasympathetic tone.
An elevated heart rate, he continued, has been shown in previous studies to possibly be associated with increased morbidity and mortality in patients with cardiovascular diseases.
Dr. Andersson said during his presentation that "while there is no cause for alarm, we still need to give consideration to the high prevalence of cardiovascular conditions when treating patients [with overactive bladder] with antimuscarinics."
The study was funded by Novartis.
[Presentation title: Prevalence of Cardiovascular Co-Morbidities in Patients Treated With Antimuscarinics for Overactive Bladder (OAB). Abstract 40]
E-Mail this DGDispatch to a colleague
